STACK Magazine November Issue 121

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lightning rod, while for
others, especially those
suffering through the Great
Depression of the 1930s, it
proved a model for survival.
Mitchell summarised her
novel thus: “If my book
has a theme, it is that of
survival. What makes some
people come through a
catastrophe and others,
just as able, strong and
brave, go under? I only
know that survivors call
that quality gumption. So
I wrote about people who
had gumption, and people who didn’t”.
Selznick was now faced with the monumental
task of turning the 1037-page novel into a
workable film script. He gave the job to leading
playwright Sidney Howard, who having already
read the book described it to Selznick as “a
sentimental piece of tripe about a bitch and
a bastard”. While Howard struggled with the
adaptation, Selznick began casting his production;
in particular the “bitch” and the “bastard” roles.
The male protagonist of the story was the
rakish blockade runner and speculator, Captain
Rhett Butler. And as far as the moviegoing public
was concerned, only one actor could portray
the role – the king of Hollywood himself, Clark
Gable. But Gable was under contract at MGM,
and Selznick had no intention of asking his
father-in-law to borrow the studio’s top male star
because he could guess what it would cost him.
Actors such as Ronald Colman, Gary Cooper,
Basil Rathbone and Errol Flynn were considered
by Selznick for the part of Butler, but for one
reason or another, were all declined. The public
and media clamour for Clark Gable to be cast
had now reached fever pitch, leaving Selznick
no other option but to go cap in hand to Mayer
“F orget it, Louis. No Civil War movie ever
made a nickel”. During a meeting with
Louis B. Mayer in early 1936, MGM’s
production chief Irving Thalberg had listened to
the synopsis of a soon to be published Civil War
novel. Thalberg’s comment prompted Mayer not
to buy the movie rights. Six months later, the
37-year-old Thalberg was dead and the Civil War
novel he convinced Mayer to reject was a
publishing phenomenon – the fastest selling book
in history (it would also win a Pulitzer Prize and
go on to sell over 30 million copies).
Louis B. Mayer’s son-in-law, David O.
Selznick, was an independent film producer
working out of RKO studios, and like his father-in-
law, had initially expressed no interest in buying
the novel’s film rights. But Selznick-International
Pictures New York-based story editor Kay Brown
urged her boss to think again; she excitedly
told him that this could be the greatest motion
picture ever made.
Selznick still had doubts about the commercial
success of a film based on the Civil War.
However, he trusted Kay Brown implicitly. After
sleeping on it, the next morning he wired her to
close the deal with Macmillan Publishing. She
did so for $50,000; at that time the highest price
ever paid for the film rights of a first novel by an
unknown author.
Atlanta-born Margaret Mitchell had always
toyed with the idea of writing a Civil War story
after having been weaned as a child on family
stories of Sherman’s siege and the burning of
Atlanta. Her book Gone with the Wind had taken
ten years to write and tells the story of pampered
and spoilt Southern belle Scarlett O’Hara, her
loves, marriages and upheavals during the war
between the States. The novel’s title reflects
the departure of a way of life that existed in
the antebellum American South before being
overturned and swept away by the Civil War.
For some readers the book was a racial
for the services of the actor. The MGM mogul
drove a brutal bargain for contributing Gable to
the production, which included 50 per cent of the
profits, 15 per cent of the gross to distribute the
picture, and Selznick to pay Gable’s salary for the
12 weeks the actor was required – plus a $16,666
bonus. Selznick almost balked at the deal, but
Gable was indispensable; he reluctantly accepted
Mayer’s terms. With false smiles all round for
the publicity photo, Selznick watched Mayer and
Gable sign the contract.
The legal agreement presented Selznick with
a major contractual issue. MGM demanded
exclusive distribution rights for Gone with the
Wind. Selznick already had a contract with United
Artists to release his films through to the end
of 1938, which meant he couldn’t start filming
GWTW until early 1939. He knew he needed
to maintain the public and media interest in his
movie until its theatrical release, but what could
he do? Selznick’s solution to his problem was
pure genius. As he still needed to cast an actress
to play the fiery Scarlett O’Hara, he announced
to the media that he would launch a nationwide
search by hiring a hundred talent scouts to scour
the country for an unknown female to play the
NOVEMBER 2014 JB Hi-Fi
FEATURE
Gone With
the Wind
(1939)
Directed by
Victor Fleming
EXTRAS visit
False smiles as Louis B. Mayer signs the contract
for Clark Gable’s services on Gone with the
Wind, watched by Gable and David O. Selznick.